ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – It’s going to be the last hoorah at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena Saturday night as the venue’s most frequent headliner, Bret Michaels, takes the stage one last time.
Demolition of the venue is set for May 1, which will pave the way for a new $93 million, yet-to-be-named, expo center.
The old arena isn’t going down though before one last rocking event, which is set up to be a true throwback party.
“The promoter decided to try to make this a throwback concert and pretty much used all of the par cans,” explains Terry Charles, with PMI Entertainment Group. “So he’s got like 650 par cans.”
The local promoter, Red Rock Productions, decided to buy retro lighting fixtures to give the show a true 1980’s time machine feel.
According to Charles, the move has excited Bret Michaels, who has performed at the venue more than anybody else in its history and has long used the arena for warmup purposes prior to going out on long tours.
The Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena opened back in the late 1950s and has seen a gauntlet of acts come through the doors during that time.
For those that grew up in the area, it’s tough to see the venue run its course, but most agree that the time has come to move on to bigger and better things.
“It’s bittersweet,” explains Charles. “Obviously those of us in the business know that it’s time for a new building.”
But, plenty of people want to see the building in action one last time before it gets torn down at the start of May.
The show initially sold out, but with that quick of a response, officials decided to open up more seats.
As of Friday afternoon, around 130 tickets were still available.
The excitement has even extended to the set-up crew, which was busy at work on Friday making the final touches to the stage.
“It’s crazy, a lot of changes, it’s rock and roll,” explains Jason Strazischar, with Lighthouse Productions. “Bret kind of started to hear, ‘Hey, we’re doing what?’”
He says the move to par can lights was also a bit of a shock to them, which means more work, but a fun change of pace.
Strazischar says the comradery among the crew has been outstanding and he’s enjoying listening to older members tell stories about past performances at the venue.
“They’re telling me stories of Elvis,” he explains. “And they’re telling me stories of when the Aerosmith’s of the world are coming through here back in their hay day.”
The Bret Michaels performance, “Nothin’ But a Good Time – For the Last Time” starts at 7:00 p.m. with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets can be found online.
